Army in dock: Pak amazed at verdict

It's not every day that the courts in Pakistan hold army officers guilty of treason in Pakistan. In fact, so disdainful were army generals of the Supreme Court that one former chief in the 90's refused to attend proceedings when summoned in a case.

"Generals can't appear before civilians," he is reported to have said. That's why the verdict by the Pakistan Supreme Court last week in which two army generals and one president were held guilty of rigging the 1990 elections comes a landmark decision.

Gen Mirza Aslam Beg, then army chief, and Lt Gen Asad Durrani, then head of ISI, alongwith then president Ghulam Ishaq Khan were found guilty of rigging the 1990 elections.

In what is known as the Asghar Khan case, the court also ruled that not only should the army not interfere in politics but those politicians who received money at the behest of the trio that rigged the elections should now return the public money.

The army high command has played along. It issued a statement lauding the decision and insisting that it does not interfere in politics.

The question is whether the government will follow up on its threat to try the two retired generals for treason.

"If it goes ahead with this it will be the trial of the century," says legal expert Iqbal Haider.